2021 YEAR IN PHOTOS

Middle East Images bring together photographers from the MENA region, giving a first hand experience through their lens. Our goal is giving a visual narrative of local stories with a global vision.
Our 2021 selection of photos and year in review was curated by the director here at Middle East Images, Hossein Fatemi. These photos are a fraction of the work produced by our agency. Through this selection Hossein aimed to give us a window into the photographic vision and glimpse of what we covered the past year.

Pope Francis holds mass at the Erbil Stadium. Pope Francis began on 05 March a three-day official visit in Iraq, the first papal visit to this country affected throughout the years by war, insecurity and lately COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic. Photo by Seivan M.Salim/Middle East Images
Turkish soldier patrols along the Iranian-Turkish border near Caldiran district. The construction of a concrete wall along the Turkish-Iranian border is intended to curb the massive influx of migrants fleeing Afghanistan since the fall of Kabul. Photo by Alba Cambeiro/Middle East Images
Palestinian women mourn for their relatives killed in an explosion during the ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip.Photo by Sanad Latifa/Middle East Images
A Syrian boy holds a mortar round in a scrap yard in the countryside around Hama, Syria. The shells, rounds, and casings are taken apart and the metal sold for scrap. Photo by Ali Haj Suleiman/Middle East Images
Hussein, 16, taking a quick dip in Al-Chabayish Marsh southern Iraq. Photo by Karrar Nasser/Middle East Images
Following yesterday’s deadly violent clashes between Muslim Shiite militants of pro-Iranian Hezbollah and opponents. At least six people were killed and 32 others were injured in Beirut today in gunfire and clashes at a protest against a judge investigating last year’s massive blast at the city’s port. Photo by Oliver Marsden/Middle East Images
Dead venomous snake floating in Iraq’s southern Marsh. Photo Karrar Nasser/Middle East Images
Peshmerga recruit of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) running through an obstacle course on fire. The Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) is the mainstream political and military organisation of the Kurds in Iran opposing the Islamic Republic of Iran. The KDPI is currently based in Iraqi side of the Iran-Iraq borders, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Photo by Keiwan Fatehi/Middle East Images
Hamas militants parade at a rally just over a week after a cease-fire was reached in an 11-day war between Hamas and Israel. Photo by Hosam Salem/Middle East Images
A Syrian man carries a spent projectile in a scrap yard in the countryside around Hama, Syria. The shells, mortar rounds, and casings are taken apart and the metal sold for scrap.Photo by Ali Haj Suleiman/Middle East Images
Refugee Olympic Team’s Kimia Alizadeh (Blue) and Iran’s Nahid Kiyanichandeh (Red) hug regardless of competing in the taekwondo women’s -57kg elimination round bout during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Makuhari Messe Hall in Tokyo on July 25, 2021.
Taliban fighter punching a double end bag in Bagram detention center, Afghanistan. Bagram in Afghanistan, located near an airbase is said to be equivalent to Guantanamo, the infamous US detention center. An hour drive from Kabul located in the outskirts, Bagram airport was the operation center for the longest war in US history. The military base housed tens of thousands of soldiers, planes, helicopters and ammunition. The US forces left Bagram base and the detention facility overnight. Thousands of prisoners escaped without taking their belongings. Nearly 500 Taliban, Al-Qaeda and ISIS militants were held in these detention facilities.
Dalia and Saja, their father was kidnapped in 2016 by the militias, and their mother left them with their grandmother to marry another man. They are now living without studies because of their difficult economic situation. Photo by Bakr Alazzawi/Middle East Images
Nasser Norrie left everything behind as hundreds of thousands of Syrians due to the Syrian war, but his passion for herbs and their qualities remained greater. Norries asylum in Duhok, Kurdistan and the Dumiz 2 camp particularly made him face a new environment where refugees were in need of a different kind of treatment. Norrie practises alternative medicine with herbs and his new environment has brought him back to the start. He began a new search where the herbs that he uses to treat people grow , encountering new plants and discovering their importance in various treatments. You can find Nasser putting the fennel plant in the water, boils it well, puts cotton in that water, and uses it on the eyes to relieve from pressure and constant concentrations. Sometimes you can find him searching for bird waste to be used in producing creams that are useful for skin care. Dozens of people benefit from the medicines that he makes with his hands and treats patients who are unable to be treated by modern medicine. His experience in physical therapy saves enormous amounts of money for cases that need to be pursued to get their muscles back to normal function.. Norrie tries to his teach what he knows to his daughter, he teaches her the qualities of each plant as well as the origins of the Cupping therapy. Norrie, born in 1965, is married with four children and uses a part of his house to sell herbs in the camp. Photo by Dilawer Behlawe/Middle East Images
Demolished houses due to the operations to liberate Mosul, Iraq from ISIS. Photo by Bakr Alazzawi/Middle East Images
A teenage Iraqi youth practices parkour- and advanterouz sport to spend time – in the oil rich city of Kikuk. Photo by Mohammed Jalal/Middle East Images
Syrian refugee Ibrahim al-Hussein, an amputee swimmer who is aiming to be part of a Refugee Paralympic Team for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. Ibrahim has been living in Greece for seven years. When he watched the Athens Olympic Games in 2004, he was inspired. The son of a swimming coach, he began swimming at five in the Euphrates river. As a teenager he dreamt of becoming an Olympic swimmer. Back in 2012, Hussein lost his right leg when he rushed to help a friend in a bomb blast during the Syrian civil war. Fleeing the war, Ibrahim crossed to Samos in Greece 2014 in an inflatable boat with 18 people. A private doctor eventually got him a free prosthetic leg and unlike hundreds of thousands of refugees who travelled to wealthier European countries, he stayed and was granted asylum.Photo by Aggelos Barai/Middle East Images
Taliban patrol holding guns in Bagram air base on September 1, 2021. Bagram, the largest NATO air base in Afghanistan and the main headquarters of U.S. forces is now under Taliban control. The fall of the Afghan government to the Taliban after the 20 years of US control in August 2021 is sparking concerns for Afghans and foreigners alike. Civilians especially women and children are facing life threatening factors like hunger, safety, human rights, education and humiliation. The fear of instability and a new refugee crisis has turned into reality once again.
Taliban fighters in a pickup van holding the Taliban flag in Kabul, Afghanistan. The fall of the Afghan government to the Taliban after the 20 years of US control in August 2021 is sparking concerns for Afghans and foreigners alike. Civilians especially women and children are facing life threatening factors like hunger, safety, human rights, education and humiliation. The fear of instability and a new refugee crisis has turned into reality once again.
Protesters chant slogans in central Istanbul, Police used tear gas to disperse the crowds and detained some dozens of LGBT protesters as hundreds defied a ban and tried to stage a gay pride event.Photo by Emirkan Corut /Middle East Images
Farzande Nazhat Khorshid was born in 1961, he was Peshmarga since 1979, and his son Renas Farzande Nazhat was born in 1988 and he becomes peshmarga in 2004. Both of them got wounded in fighting ISIS in Rabia in Sep 2014 by a suicide car bombing. Photo by Younes Mohammad/Middle East Images
Demonstration near the border fence with Israel, east of Gaza City, to denounce the Israeli blockade and express support for Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, in Gaza, Palestine. Photo by Hosam Salem/Middle East Images
A Palestinian child, in a tent among the ruins of buildings in Gaza City, lights a candle in remembrance of those killed by Israeli airstrikes. Photo by Sanad Latefa/Middle East Images
An explosion at the Hamas linked Ansar compound in Gaza City, after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike. The ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel has seen heavy aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip and cross border rocket exchanges, with an ever increasing number of civilian casualties. Israel has mobilized and deployed more troops at the border with the Gaza Strip.Photo by Sanad Latefa/Middle East Images
A girl named Foziyeh, wearing a blue scarf at the IDP camp in Shahrak Sabz, was alone shopping in the evening close to dinner time. Herat, Afghanistan.Photo by Osman Khayyam/Middle East Images


Dentist Dr.Hamed Esmaeilion during the protest against ICAO’s silence in the face of numerous violations of international aviation rules and regulations during the downing of a Ukrainian airline in Montreal,Quebec, Canada, on June 30, 2021.Photo by Omid Vahabzadeh/Middle East Images
Two young Lebanese women sit on the Beirut waterfront, looking at the sea. We took a few portraits, I thanked them, and before saying goodbye, they said to me ´ Thank you for making this shooting, because before that we were talking about how much we wanted to die ª. Lebanon is going through a dire economic crisis which leaves over 80% of its population to live below the poverty line, and a large part of the youth testify to suffer from depression or anxiety. The Lebanese establishment has crushed the dreams of the young generation, and the ongoing crisis breaks the taboo of suicide in Lebanon. Photo by Aline Deschamps/Middle East Images
Muhammad Abdulrahman Pirot. He was born in Ranya, in 1982 he got chosen to serve the Iraqi military, he stayed at the camp of Tadrib for a week, then all of them lined up to be ready with his friends to transfer them to somewhere else, he was sent directly to the Jafar area, which is border of Iraq and Iran, before the war he had previously been told he would be going to Basra, but they had taken him to the front of the war, in 24/5/1982 Iran attacked them so tough,14 thousands soldiers of them surrendered to the Iranian forces, Muhammad stayed in jail for 9 years long, he is still suffering because of cancer due to the effect of prison moisture. Photo by Karwan Karim/Middle East Images
AFGHANISTAN: 20th September 2021 Members of the Taliban patrols the streets of Kabul in Afghanistan. Relative safety has returned to the streets of Kabul since the Taliban take over, but this calm has been threatened by the rise in ISIS-K attacks in the capital. Oliver Marsden
Two young Afghan boys sleeping after crossing the border by foot through impassible mountain trails. After the fall of 11 provinces in Afghanistan to the Taliban on August 12th, 2021 a lot of civilians are fleeing, migrating and making their way into neighboring countries. The journey is difficult, life threatening along with other factors like hunger, safety and humiliation. Smugglers conduct the crossing into the Iranian border for the refugees. The journey is harsh and takes immigrants days crossing impassable areas and mountainous regions. The fear of instability and a new refugee crisis has turned into reality again in Afghanistan with a prolonged conflict of 150 years causing generations to be born into war. Photo by Zobair Movahhed/Middle East Images
With the prolongation of the drought in Sistan region,
many locals migrate and villages are empty of inhabitants and deserted
Thousands of Farmers and their supporters protested, demanding the authorities to open the dam on the dried up riverbed of Zayandeh Roud in the city of Isfahan. The central Iranian city has been dealing with water shortages and drought which has worsened over the years. The peaceful movement has been ongoing with slogans like ?Give Isfahan its breath, give our Zayandeh Rud back,? and some are chanting ?equality and justice?.
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